Terror Tales II
Terror Tales II is a horror-anthology film released in 1996, and is a sequel to the 1992 film. Unlike the first which was an independent production shot with a small budget, this film was made for theaters. It's a collection of short films Elliot Strange made throughout the early-90s. The film was somewhat better received than the first but it wasn't a financial success. Plot Intro The mother (now named Margot) (Maud Adams), evades the freak show runner from the ending of the previous movie. She has lost her arm and is partially blinded in the midst of her escape from him. She takes shelter in a remote home, which owned by Mr. Thornton (Freddie Jones). He informs Margot that the phone line is down and that the nearest police station is miles away. Mr. Thornton tells her to wait in his home until the lines become open again and he keeps her interest up by telling her some stories. Sentinel Professor Lane hosts a seminar about a mythical creature dubbed the "Sentinel". The students are skeptical of its existence, not buying any of Lane's stories, and write him off as crazy. In a desperate bid to defend himself, Lane calls his friend Wynn to tell a story about an encounter he had with the Sentinel along with another group of students. While venturing around the mountainside, one of the students discovers a hidden labyrinth, and within it is a mummified creature. Against Wynn's demands to leave it behind, the students take it along with the intent of sending it to a museum. They're forced to keep it with them for the night due to the museum being closed and have it stored in a toolshed. Two students go to have sex in the toolshed, where the mummified creature emerges from its casing and attacks the two, later finding and killing the wife of the town sheriff. Wynn and the remaining students band together to hunt down the creature. The sheriff is sent to find the creature and gets his leg broken. The creature finds and kills the remaining students before fleeing into the woods, while Wynn pursues it. Back in class, Wynn warns the students to never pursue the sentinel, as it rejects humanity and refuses to adjust to their standards. When questioned on how Wynn recalls the event in such clear detail, it's revealed that Wynn is the sentinel and he goes after the students. Lane shoots Wynn and successfully kills him, and we learn that Lane was the sheriff from the flashback. He wanted to find and kill the Sentinel as retribution for what it did to him and his wife. Cast * Steve Railsback: Lane * Frank C. Turner: Wynn Notes * Completed in 1992. * Interior scenes shot at the University of Arizona. * Exterior shots were filmed in the Santa Catalina Mountains. * Railsback and Turner have appeared together before in an episode of The X-Files. Static Marc Anderson is a bitter TV critic who's shows live or die by his reviews. He is vehemently against adaptations of older works or remakes of older shows, with which he holds a remake of a childhood show, The Beyond, to a very negative degree and he rants about the show on a constant basis, to the annoyance of his friends, his wife and his boss. Marc visits a video store, where a clerk points him to a tape containing an unreleased episode of The Beyond, which he immediately buys. After angering his wife, Charlene, by forcibly commandeering the TV, he puts the tape in and sees a black and white rendition of his kitchen. Marc calls his wife in to show her but all she sees is static. Marc keeps watching and sees a man enter the kitchen. He goes into the fridge and pulls out a slice of pie, which he takes a bite into before putting it back. Charlene discovers that a pie she was saving has been bitten into and Marc is blamed. He looks outside for the man on the TV but has no luck. Marc continues watching the video. The man goes upstairs and approaches the bathroom, brandishing a knife. Marc runs up to stop him but scares Charlene who's taking a shower. Time passes and Marc becomes lethargic from placing all of his attention on the video. He goes to shut off the TV, but the power goes out as he hits the switch. Marc goes to look for the fusebox and happens down a long corridor that leads to his kitchen, but the kitchen is set in black and white, closely resembling the area as seen on the video. Marc goes into the living room and is shocked to find that a mural in the living room (previously displaying the man) now contains him. The room begins to distort and break down as Marc cries desperately for help. We zoom out and see that Marc is in the TV, which is shut off by the man from the TV. Cast * Jeff Daniels: Marc * Kate McGregor-Stewart: Charlene * Sam Anderson: The man * Timothy Bottoms: Phil Notes * Filmed in Safford, Arizona. * Completed in 1991. Black Willow Autumn is a menopausal woman who seeks any means to have a child. Through the advice of her husband, Roy, she takes up more natural methods after her doctors were unable to help her. She takes a pill that'd help her overcome her menopause. Within a week, the pill works and she becomes pregnant, later going into labor at an alarmingly quick rate, giving birth to a girl which Autumn names Willow. A few years later, Willow, now four, kisses her father goodnight as Autumn attempts to find more info on the pill she took due to a supposed lack of ramifications. Roy tells her not to worry about it, but as he speaks he suffers a seizure and dies. Autumn calls a doctor and after doing an autopsy on Roy, he is unable to find a root cause for the death, blaming it on a surprise heart attack. Both soon discover that Autumn's house has a spider infestation and Autumn finds a spider bite on Roy. She is advised to relocate so her house could be fumigated. Autumn travels to Oregon to stay at a boarding house ran by her father Walt. Willow goes out to play while Autumn settles in her room, where she's given a cold reception by the tenants, believing she will get special liberties since she's Walt's daughter. Meanwhile, Willow joins in a game of tag and accidentally trips on one of the boys, her face landing on his. The boy goes home and falls ill, later collapsing and dying from a seizure. Autumn is blamed for this, but Walt comes to her defense and the accusers let it slide due to a lack of evidence. Learning that Autumn's husband died and taking pity on her for the accusations, the tenants attempt to make it up to her by taking her and Willow around the countryside. They visit a zoo and Willow gives a gorilla a kiss on the cheek. The gorilla has a seizure and attacks Willow, only for it to collapse and die. The zookeeper blames the death on natural causes. A few years later, Willow becomes a teenager and develops an interest in boys. Every boy she encounters and gets intimate with wind up dying. Willow isn't accused since the deceased were involved in acts that could've been fatal. One of the boys, Dale, survives (having put plastic on his lips and not opening his mouth) and undergoes hallucinations, slowly losing his grip on reality. Meanwhile, Autumn gets a call from her doctor who did a more thorough autopsy on Roy. He reveals that he found a series of holes in his body, as well as a number of spiders crawling out of it. Autumn learns that similar things happened to the boys that died and after learning that the last thing Roy did was kiss Willow goodnight. Autumn looks into the medicine and discovers that it contained an agent that consumes one's fertility egg and turns it into a spider embryo. Willow's kisses led to those being injected with venom and spider eggs being laid within them. When confronted, Willow runs and hides in the basement, where the tenants discover a colony of giant spiders are down there. A fight ensues which ends after Walt sets fire to the building, killing all but Willow who's mortally wounded. Dale, being consumed by his insanity, goes to help Willow and Dale gets killed after the tenants gang up and beat him to death, while Willow manages to escape. Cast * Julie Kavner: Autumn Dunning * David Ogden Stiers: Ronald Dickson * Melinda Dillon: Enid Dickson * Estelle Getty: Delta * Susan Dey: Hanneke * Tim Choate: Cosmo * Stuart Charno: Ned * Max Wright: Preston * Neith Hunter: Stephanie * Barnard Hughes: Walt Dunning * Timothy Carhart: Roy Dunning * Nicholle Tom: Teenaged Willow * Madeline Zima: Younger Willow * Jonathan Brandis: Dale * Noah Fleiss: Young boy * Greg Mullavey: Doctor * Bill Mumy: Zookeeper Notes * Completed in 1993. * Shot in Riverton, Utah. * Features Julie Kavner in a rare non-comedic role. * The zoo scene was unscripted. Strange intended to take a flash photo of the gorilla to provide a more genuine attack scene, with Strange informing the zookeeper and having him be ready with a tranquilizer. The main cast attempted to save Madeline Zima as the gorilla began violent shaking her. Ending Margot commends Mr. Thornton for keeping her safe, though he quickly accuses her of being the murderous daughter from the first film's segment Poetic Injustice. Mr. Thornton is revealed to be the poet she idolized and that her assailant was a vigilante who sought to kill her without leaving any evidence on his part. She falls into the cellar whilst trying to escape and her husband catches up to her, him being revealed to be the donor who gave Autumn the medicine. He has gained control of Willow and intended to sacrifice her and their children to spare his own life. A completely changed Willow comes in and eats Margot. Production The segments were shot throughout 1991 and 1993. The wrap-around segments were directed by Monte Hellman, with additional stock-footage provided by Strange from nature videos he shot in Jefferson, New York in 1990. The short films were originally produced with assistance from Roman Coppola. American Zoetrope inherited th film when it was released to theatres. Trade adverts and posters, as well as the ending had the American Zoetrope logo, while the beginning had the logo for Roman Coppola’s Commercial Pictures. Reception The film earned a 51% on Rotten Tomatoes, indicating generally mixed reviews, though it has garnered a much warmer reception than the previous film. However, it was a failure at the box-office. Elliot Strange left the film industry for seven years before returning to direct the English localization of Artie Ficial. Follow-Up A third film, Terror Tales III: A New Kind of Terror was released direct to video in 2010 by Lionsgate. Two additional installments were released after that one between 2012 and 2014. All three were met with very negative reviews.